— Glossary
SERVICE RADIUS
The geographic area you actually drive to for jobs.
Defines ad targeting, lead qualification, and quote auto-routing. Get this wrong and you waste spend on leads you cannot serve.
Service Radius is the geographic area you actually serve and should be a strict operational boundary. For contractors, ignoring service radius kills profitability: long drives increase labor and fuel costs, reduce the number of jobs a crew can do in a day, and raise logistics complexity. Define your radius in minutes drive-time or zip-based polygons, and use it in ad targeting, scheduling, and routing. Exclude or bid down for areas with consistently low close-rates or high travel time. Inform customers about travel fees for borderline locations. Use routing and scheduling tools that calculate drive time and optimize job assignments to reduce deadhead miles. Measure revenue per mile and track whether expanding radius pays off compared to hiring a new crew or sub. Correctly implemented service-radius targeting improves LTV per customer and reduces hidden costs in CPA and show-rate. Be transparent in customer-facing materials about service zones and expected travel windows to set expectations and avoid no-shows or late arrivals.
- A roofing company limits its ad targeting to a 30-minute drive radius after noticing long-trip jobs had lower margins.
- An HVAC firm adds travel surcharges for jobs beyond 20 miles and adjusts ad bids accordingly to reflect the true CPA.
- A marine-detailing business uses zip targeting for island-access jobs and estimates ferry times as part of its service-radius calculations.
Setting a vague ‘regional’ radius without accounting for drive time; the common error is letting marketing chase volume across inefficient territories.
— Service Radius in practice
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